Igor Alexsandrovich Moiseyev

Moiseyev, Igor Alexsandrovich (ēˈgər əlyĭksänˈdrəvĭch moisāˈyĕv) [key], 1906–2007, Russian dancer and choreographer. He studied at the Bolshoi Ballet School and was later a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre (1924–39) and ballet master there (1930–39). In 1937 he organized the Moiseyev Dance Company, a ballet-trained folk dance group. The company later toured Europe (debuting in Paris in 1955), the United States (debuting in New York City in 1958), and China and became one of the world's most popular dance troupes. With the hundreds of works he choreographed, Moiseyev created a new form of dance that distilled the folk styles of Russia and other nations into lively, virtuosic, and innovative theatrical performances. Among his best-known dances are Partisans,Pictures from the Past, and Dance of Fools ; he also choreographed ballets, e.g., Salammbô (1932) and Khachaturian's Spartacus (1958) for the Bolshoi Ballet.